Remarks at the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in New York City

SIR,—I return you, on behalf of those of my constitutional advisers who are with me, and on my own account, my warm and cordial thanks for the reception you have been pleased to extend to us. I have come, Sir, to testify the interest I feel in, and the respect I entertain for, this great Industrial Exhibition—designed and calculated to promote all that belongs to the interest of our country. You, sir, and the gentlemen who have been and are associated with you, have imposed upon all of us a deep debt of gratitude for your energy and perseverance in this great enterprise. What ever the shortcomings of which you have spoken may be, I can only remark that they do not appear here; and, so far as I have been able to perceive, they are lost in your complete and transcendent success. [Loud and continued applause.] Everything around us reminds us that we live in an utilitarian age, where science, instead of being locked up for the admiration of the world, has become tributary to the arts, manufactures, agriculture, and all that goes to promote our universal prosperity. Sir, if you had achieved no other good but that which you have in bringing together, in this metropolis, citizens from all parts of the Union, you would have fulfilled, perhaps, one of the most important of missions—that of strengthening and perpetuating that blessed Union. [Great applause.] But you have done more, and you have nobly alluded to it. Your Exhibition has been the means of bringing here, from all the civilized countries on the face of the globe, men most eminent in all the walks of life; and thus you have done more than could be done, in almost any other manner, to promote that great object dear to you, dear to me, and dear to my venerable friend near me, [Bishop Wainwright,] peace and good-will among men. [Applause.] I have not the voice, at this time, to address you at any greater length, and conclude by again returning to you my thanks for your generous reception, and tendering my heart's best wishes for the success of your praiseworthy enterprise. [Applause.]